Bobby Marks’ 2025 Minnesota Timberwolves Offseason Guide: 2nd-straight WCF loss & more | NBA on ESPN

Bobby Marks’ 2025 Minnesota Timberwolves Offseason Guide: 2nd-straight WCF loss & more | NBA on ESPN

All right, a happy Wednesday evening. Hopefully, uh, everyone is doing terrific out there, especially if you are a Oklahoma City Thunder fan. Congratulations to making it to the NBA finals. Um, we are going to do a Minnesota Timberwolves off seasonason article. They are team number 27. Wow, we’re almost there. Um, as far as uh articles that we have up on espn.com and and certainly the videos and we will continually doing more of the lottery teams. I know I’m neglecting some of those lottery teams here, but we are um we are going to do a Timberwolves offseason article. It was funny when um Oklahoma City was up I don’t even know it was 40. I texted my editor and I said, I think I might want to change the intro to the article and or the state of the roster and then I read it and I was like, well, it’s it’s not overly positive. I mean, it’s not like, you know, bells and whistles on there. It’s pretty much plain plain jane. So, I I would say like these type of things when you get your doors blown off in a elimination game and in a conference finals, there’s always like we live in this world right now. It’s really interesting um where whenever a team loses in this way, it’s always, and maybe this will happen with New York, um and their offseason article is written, it’s always fire the coach and go trade for Giannis or trade for Kevin Durant. Um we live in this like knee-jerk reaction where it’s always has to be like, okay, maybe it was a good year and maybe we just have to tweak some things here. So Minnesota when you look at from where they were after the Carl Anthony Towns trade to where they finished and I know we have to include game five. Um there was a point in the season where this team was 21 and 19. There was a point in the season where we thought this this the Randall mix or the Randall um um with the starting five did not work. Uh there was this point in the season where we probably thought that this team maybe doesn’t even get out of a playing tournament and lo and behold they go 17 and four down the stretch and they beat um certainly I and and and this is kind of an interesting thing. I think it it shows you that and I know Curry was out in the Golden State series that you beat two aging teams, two older teams with the Lakers in Golden State and you ran into a buzzsaw in Oklahoma City that is a much better team than you are. They were certainly in those first two games at home. They were certainly in that game five to eliminate you and uh we saw an epic game four and that basically kind of knocked the wind out of the sales here. Um so where do we go now? Okay, this is going to be an interesting offseason for for I’m saying Oklahoma City for Minnesota here. First you’ve got a new ownership group uh led by Mark Laurier and Alex Rodriguez. You’ve seen them sitting under the basket. Um you’ve seen them up front. Um it’s going to be interesting as far as where their fingerprints are going to be on this roster. Um you’ve got 13 players under contract. Okay. So you basically have the bulk of this roster under contract. Uh two of those players are Julius Randall and Nas Reed. We’re going to talk about them in a minute that both of those have player options here. Um one of your free agents is Nikquille Alexander Walker. We are going to talk about him in a minute here. I would just say this that you’re going to see um this roster that finished in the conference finals is going to look a little bit differently here because it’s it’s not going to be sustainable. Um and to bring back Alexander Walker and pay $250 million and be a second apron team again. That that’s not what’s going to happen. And I’m going to explain a little bit why and what what Minnesota has coming down the pike here. So, a little bit about the finances. As far as the Towns trade did balance this roster better financially, I thought basketball-wise, certainly when you had Devenzo Reed, um, Alexander Walker, and then you add certainly Terrence Shannon, who we will talk about in a minute here, um, and you have the flexibility now to be a little bit more aggressive. You’re still a tax team next year. Um, you are under the second apron. Um, including both those guys options. Let’s say if Reed and Randall opt in and the first round pick, you’re about $11 million below the um below that second apron. So, you can go out and spend a little bit here if you wanted to. And you have flexibility from a from a trade standpoint, but it will cost you Alexander Walker. You’ve got some team options with Josh Mina and Luca Garza. Uh the Randall and Reed options are June 29th, uh 15 million 295. I’m not. It’s going to look like I think 30.5, but he’s got b likely bonuses and I’m not going to factor him in right now. All right. So, here’s your pri priority. Okay. And here’s the question we open with. Will the Timberwolves be forced to choose between between retaining Randall Reed and Alexander Walker? The answer could play a pivotal part how Minnesota’s roster is shaped next season in future years. I would say this regarding Randall and Reed, and I’m not using sourced information. You’re just kind of looking at the the tea leaves of the um of what this summer is going to look like financially. And I’m going to put out some graphics in a couple weeks um where we where we I basically have tiered the four all 30 teams into four tiers, you know, and it shows you basically Brooklyn’s on an island by themsel and everybody else is kind of in that middle area. And that is going to play a significant role what’s going to happen with Julius Randall and Nas Reed. I would say it would be highly likely, okay, this is just me looking at the financial landscape that both players opt into their contract. Julius Randall is not making $30 million on the open market. That ain’t happening unless it’s going to be with Minnesota on a new contract or opting in. Nas Reed is a little bit different. He’s at 15 million. Um, I it’s hard for me to see him taking the non-taxman level exception at $14.1 million. I just I don’t see that. And it’s it’s a paid cut. And if you’re him, why would you want to commit long-term where when you would could potentially get a long-term deal with Minnesota? The other thing too, and it’s a good lesson, especially for agents who are maybe watch this, and we’ve talked a lot to agents, leaving your own team to go become a free agent, it’s like the land of the unknown. Uh, and the only way that these two players will decline their options is basically if it’s going to be with new deals with Minnesota, maybe at lower, maybe at a a number that’s more manageable. Certainly for Randall. As I said, the Reed number is at $15 million. Um, we don’t need to go into the stats of R. Randall kind of all over the place this year. Certainly really good in the the first two rounds. This this series was a roller coaster. Uh, Reed certainly one of the better six men. Um, really good numbers. Certainly last year winning it and then this year. I think the scenarios for both players, you’re basically you’re going to opt in. You’re going to opt in and extend potentially. you’re going to opt out and maybe sign a new contract. I think there are certainly the sign and trade scenarios that you could look at. I think there’s also um um certainly opting in and then being traded scenarios. I think those are certainly things that you have to discuss. I think there’s two things that Minnesota needs to consider that nearly half the league’s going to have cap space next year. So although you have leverage this off season, you’re going to run into an issue with uh next year where half the league will have these guys probably on top of their free agent board. And the only other thing is that you’ve you’ve got 110 million tied up in Edwards, McDaniels, and Goar or Gobert as Perk says um in 2026 27. So how much are you willing to commit? And that’s where it’s going to you’re basically might have to choose what you are going to um what you’re going to bring back here. So, keep an eye on as far as what’s going to happen with with both of those players. I would say the likelihood is that I think for Randall, if the goal is to resign, you opt in um and then you maybe you you secure longer. I know he’s 30 years old and he’s looking for that big payday, but he’s basically he’s probably your third best player on a championship team. I just look at him that way. Um and I think so there are certainly those scenarios as far as opting in and then extending off that. Um, Randall is eligible for, and he’s not going to get this, but if he opted in four for 194. Um, my screen just jumped. Uh, Reed is Reed can sign for 44 for 87 um, starting on June 27th. Okay. So, we opt in for four for 87. Um, both players got bird rights if they became free agents here. So, here’s the thing with Alexander Walker, and I was going to like comment during the season series and stuff. You’ve got Terrence Shannon waiting in the wings. Terrence Shannon Jr. waiting in the wings. He is basically your Nikil Alexander Walker replacement. You have the 17th pick in the draft and you have the 31st pick in the draft. You got two picks in the top 31. You got to nail the draft because what’s happen what’s going to happen is that when you have Edwards and McDaniels and Gobert as Perk says um and you bring back Julius Randall your expenses are getting up there. So you need your young players Terrence Shannon Jr. You need um is it Rob Dillingham because Mike Connley Jr. is about to go into the last year of his contract. He is likely the air app parent or air parent, the replacement to Connley Jr. You need your young players to develop into highlevel rotational players for this Minnesota team to have sustainable sustainable success moving forward. Dillingham, Shannon Jr. and what you get at 17 and what you get at 31. 31 is basically a first round pick and there is extreme extreme my words are all over the place. Significant good value in this year’s draft and you’re going to get two good players at that pick and that’s going to be important to offset some of these finances here. Um extension Danchenzo is also eligible. He can sign a three for 64 and a half. He’s got uh two years left. Um team needs sustainability of the roster. So we talked about development. Uh Dillingham, Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark, another name. Um the two picks in this year’s draft. You need Dillingham to develop into a high level rotational player. That is extremely the what you gave up to get him extremely extremely important. Your draft assets, you are um outside of this year, you’re close to empty as far as what you can as far as from a tradable standpoint. you owe a ton going out. Um, you can swap your 28, but you have no outside of that Detroit first. You have, you have no pick that you can trade. Um, you can swap in 28. You’ve got 4 seconds available here because you’re under that um because you’re well under the second apron right now. Um, you are allowed to aggregate contracts. So, if a certain player in Phoenix does become available, you will be allowed to aggregate contracts. However, you have to once you aggregate, you have to stay below the second apron and if you take back more money, the first apron hard cap is triggered. And we’re I think we’re going to do a video on the apron again. Um because it’s kind of a different audience and u you know just some of the new things we we’ll talk about probably in probably in the next two weeks and stuff like that. So that’s it for um for Minnesota when you look at it. Certainly the Reed and Randall um player options, the development of your young players, the likelyhood that you will lose Alexander Walker um in free agency. That’s why you need Shannon Jr. Connley um Connley entering the last year of his contract. You need Dillingham. Um, listen, it’s in all in all getting to Western Conference Finals is not a um is not a um disappointing year and when you lose. Um but how it ended I think that is a bit concerning I would say just because of you know basically the lack of not the nonfight in this group um is um hopefully uh you know is a wakeup call here. So that is it for Minnesota team 27. You go on ESPN.com we will talk soon. I look like dance with the heat. I’m on fire. It’s NBA on the side.

Bobby Marks gives his 2025 offseason guide for the Minnesota Timberwolves after they were eliminated from NBA Playoff contention by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.

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